09-012
Kathy Barnstorff
757-864-9886, 344-8511 (mobile)
kathy.barnstorff@nasa.govRELEASE: 09-012
09-012: NASA LANGLEY ENCOURAGES LOCAL STUDENTS IN ROBOT "LUNACY"
HAMPTON, Va. – Students at Hampton Roads high schools from Mathews
County to Chesapeake have only this weekend to perfect their entries
for a regional robot rumble next month in Richmond.
They're designing and building machines that will compete in one of
the world's biggest engineering challenges ... the FIRST Robotics
competition. Almost seventeen hundred teams from around the world are
working to reach the annual championship event held each April at the
Georgia Dome in Atlanta. This year the contest is celebrating the
40th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing, which happens in July.
"The scenario the students are facing is particularly challenging,"
said Jeff Seaton, NASA Langley Research Center FIRST Robotics
champion. "They have to build robots that can work in simulated
one-sixth gravity, similar to what astronauts faced on the moon 40
years ago."
Students from Mathews County High School in Mathews County, New
Horizons Regional Education Center on the Peninsula, Menchville High
in Newport News Phoebus High School in Hampton, Norview and Lake
Taylor High Schools in Norfolk, Norcom High in Portsmouth and Hickory
High School in Chesapeake are frantically trying to get ready for the
Virginia showdown that could help them make it to the big show.
"Each team must compete in regional events to try to qualify for the
international First Robotics championships," said Seaton. "Virginia's
competition is at VCU's Siegel Center the weekend of March 21, but
teams have to have their robots completed and ready to ship a month
in advance."
Businesses around Hampton Roads sponsor and mentor the teams. The
first local team, the NASA Knights of New Horizons, started competing
12 years ago with the help of NASA's Langley Research Center. NASA
employees get involved with FIRST Robotics because exciting students
about technology and engineering allows them to share their own
passion.
Since 1992 FIRST Robotics has encouraged high school students to use
their engineering and psychological skills to tackle a robotic
challenge that is presented in the form of a game. In January each
team receives an identical kit of parts, including motors, batteries,
a control system and automation components, and has six weeks to
build a robot based on the team's interpretation of the game
scenario. This year's is called "Lunacy."
Lunacy requires robots to throw "moon rocks" into an opposing team's
trailers while moving around the "crater." That's the name of the
playing field, which for the first time ever is not fully carpeted.
Instead, to simulate the moon's one-sixth gravity, the 27- by 54-foot
surface is made of a slick polymer wallboard. Combine that with
custom-made slippery wheels and teams will feel like they're driving
on ice.
Adding to the challenge, robots will be hitched to trailers. Plus
human players will be part of the scoring process, something that
hasn't happened in a few years. Besides maneuvering the robots by
remote control, team members can shoot "moon rocks" worth two points
into the opposing team's trailers from outside the crater. During the
last 20 seconds of the game, the human players can shoot "super
cells" worth 15 points. But to get those high scoring "cells,"
players have to trade in "empty cells" that have been delivered by
their robots from the opposite side of the playing field.
Technology, engineering skills and the number of participants have
grown since inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST or For Inspiration and
Recognition of Science and Technology in 1989. The creator of the
"Segway" vehicle and the first wearable drug infusion pump said he
wanted to inspire youngsters' participation in science and
technology, "by creating a world where science and technology are
celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and
technology heroes," according to the FIRST Robotics website.
For more information on the NASA's Robotics Alliance Project visit:
http://robotics.nasa.gov
For more information about Virginia's First Robotics programs, go to:
http://www.virginiafirst.shuttlepod.org/
For a complete a list of FIRST Robotics regional events, corporate
sponsors and other details, visit:
http://www.usfirst.org/

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